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The Rational Response Squad is a group of atheist activists who impact society by changing the way we view god belief. This site is a haven for those who are pushing back against the norm, and a place for believers of gods to have their beliefs exposed as false should they want to try their hand at confronting us.

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Bad article = an e-mail

I read this article today and sent Tom Flannery, the writer, an e-mail. The article is about Sam Harris and his new book, bashing it.

Now you might wonder how I would come across such an article, well I search atheist on google news every so often. Anyway in the past I have looked up stuff and had this site pop up. One thing I looked up was 'WMDs found in Iraq'. This was the only site I could find that had an article saying WMDs were found there. Maybe thats a bit of an Ad Hominem, but give a person good reason to question what they are saying.

I wrote:

"The truth is there's a great deal of historical evidence that supports Christ's bodily resurrection from the grave. For instance, we have the firsthand testimonies of the disciples of Christ, who witnessed the events surrounding His death and burial, then had personal encounters with the Risen Christ in the days that followed. As the apostle Peter explained: 'For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty' (2 Peter 1:16)."

If the Elvis people wrote a holy book would it be evidence? I hope it wouldn't...

No Atheist will accept the bible for proof for anything as they don’t believe it is true. And to use it as proof for a religious belief is something people call circular logic.

"In all, more than 500 people saw the Risen Christ over a period of several weeks. As Christian apologist Josh McDowell writes in his book "Evidence That Demands a Verdict," if you brought all of those 500-plus witnesses into a courtroom and allowed them each just six minutes to give their accounts, you would have an astounding 50 hours of firsthand, eyewitness testimony in support of Christ's bodily resurrection from the grave.

...

Combine this with all of the other historical evidence for the Resurrection – the facts surrounding the empty tomb, the inability of the authorities to produce Christ's corpse after news of His appearances began spreading, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (enemy and persecutor of the church) to the apostle Paul (writer of two-thirds of the New Testament by inspiration of God) after his own encounter with the Risen Christ, etc. – and you begin to see that it takes more faith not to believe in the Resurrection and to come up with ridiculous hypotheses like 'the swoon theory' to try to explain it away than to follow the data where they lead and affirm this exhaustively attested historical event."

Mr. [me]: If the "Elvis people" laid down their lives for this truth, and continued doing it by the untold thousands through many years of horrific persecution, it would certainly lend a great deal of credence to their testimonies. With all of the other proof for the truth of the Bible (fulfilled prophecy especially, but much else), it would be absolutely compelling. The fact is that most scholars agree on the central facts surrounding the Resurrection, including the changed lives of the disciples, etc., because of the historical evidence that exists OUTSIDE of the Bible (Josephus, etc.). For more on all this, I would direct you to the works of Gary Habermas, Lee Strobel, et. al. But thanks for sharing your thoughts and the related links.

Tom

To me this seems like he is falling back on what other people are saying is true. Much like how people who say all our founding father (USA) are christian because other people wrote books about them all being christian. That is how that cheery try story got started... I for one would be interested in seeing this historical evidence. However I'm not sure where to start as I don't want to hear another Josh McDowell. Also I haven't e-mailed him back about how he just repeated the same argument he said before or the other bad arguments. This would be the idea that the bible is true because it talks about fulfilled prophecies is bullshit and the fact people are dieing for it and it has been around awhile doesn't mean anything. Also I don't want to pester him and get sued for harassment.

P.S. not sure where I should have put this so sorry if it is the wrong spot...